You're A Strong Writer. So Why Aren't You Getting Boosted On Medium?
We are looking for strong writing. But there’s a lot to wade through.
Happy Friday,
Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with a reader. She’s frustrated with Medium’s boost program because she’s a strong writer, but thinks she’s never going to get boosted. She’s right about one part. She is a strong writer. I looked.
Here’s the thing. Not everyone is a strong writer, and that’s okay. Some people ramble so much they need a paragraph to say what they could have in a sentence. But writing well is not a born talent, it’s a skill, which means we can learn and improve.
But what if you are a strong writer and your stories are not getting boosted? Because that happens, too.
Sometimes, it’s as simple as you’re not on the radar of people who can nominate you for a boost. That’s the easiest one to solve. There’s a list of publications that are part of the Boost program. It’s not a full list, because not all publications want people to know. But it will give you a starting point to get on the radar.
There are only 65 Boost Nominators so far, but thousands of posts go up every hour. We are looking for strong writing. But there’s a lot to wade through.
Too often, it’s little mistakes that cost you…
The worst part as a boost nominator is finding great writing, but seeing it riddled with little mistakes that will get an otherwise good piece rejected for a boost.
I thought I’d share a few of those mistakes. I’m not a curator and I don’t work for Medium. I just get to nominate stories to the curators. But I’ve been nominating for three months, and I pay attention to what gets accepted vs. declined.
So here’s five things worth considering.
#1. Is it too short?
I see so, so many 3-4 minute reads. Which is fine for poetry, but it’s really hard to do justice to a personal essay in 3-4 minutes. I’ve noticed that most of the pieces that get accepted tend to at least hit the 5 minute mark. At least for me. That’s not carved in stone, and other nominators might have a different experience. But in general, I find that a 3 minute read often leaves me wanting. You know?
#2. Is it crammed with call outs to other stories?
Some writers sprinkle their writing with links to their other stories. They’ll mention something and say I wrote about that before, and insert an old story right in the middle of the current story. Just use a link. Because when you paste in the url and Medium inserts the big call out box, it kind of detracts from the current story. I’ve seen people pepper posts with 3-5 of those. It takes away from the story. It’s far more powerful to write a kickass story that makes the reader say wow. And guess what? Medium puts more of your stories at the bottom. So they can read more.
#3. Can the story stand alone?
This is more common than you’d realize. Sometimes writers assume you’ve been “reading along” and know who and what they’re talking about. So Mike said, and then Julie said—and I’m sitting there not knowing who Mike and Julie are because I haven’t been reading along, I just found you and despite how strong the writing is, I’m lost. When a story gets boosted, it’s not going out to the people who’ve been reading along. It has to make sense with no context. Like, if they published the piece in a print magazine, would it make sense to the readers? Because it should.
#4. Please don’t start by justifying why you’re writing this…
I read one piece that was so strong. So, so good. Except, the good part started in the third paragraph. The first two paragraphs were a synopsis of experiences that led to the piece, if that makes sense. Most readers won’t get to the third paragraph. I wanted to ask if she could chop those but I didn’t want to step on toes. So I didn’t. The same for unrelated preambles. Write them if you must. And then cut them. Or move them. Just jump right in. You know? One of the best tips I can give any essay writer is to look for the strongest paragraph and start there.
#5. Your footer is a mess of links…
I can tell you that most boost nominators won’t nominate a post that has a whole mess of links at the bottom. I wrote an entire post about that last week, so I won’t rehash everything I said but you can read it here
No one hits it out of the park every time
I have stories that got 10K reads and stories that couldn’t beg their way to 100 reads. It’s not humanly possible to hit it out of the park every time. Maybe if you have 100K readers, but I sure don’t.
But if you are a strong writer, boost nominators want to find you. And when we do find you, we cross our fingers you’re not making the most common mistakes, which mostly amounts to rushing (short reads) and cramming your current story or your footer with links to promote your past stories. Trust me, if people love your story, they’ll check out more.
One last one? Titles. Titles really help get attention. Unless they don’t. And that’s an old horse I’ve beaten beyond death already. But it’s worth saying again.
Hope that’s helpful. :)
On Medium…
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend. If you enjoyed, scroll down just a little and click the heart. It’s a simple thing, but it makes me happy. :)
xo,
Linda
I got boosted this week- one of my Jefferson Ball stories, "The Hunter And The Game" got the nod. Since it was the first thing I wrote when I wanted to be a pro writer, way back when before Medium, getting that validation means something.
Whether it makes any difference to my monthly pay will probably be seen when I get the report next month.
These are fantastic pointers. As a fellow Booster, I want to double click on #5.
More than once, I've read all the way to the end of a story, only to mutter "damn" when I got to the string of stories tacked on to the end. If the bottom of your story looks like the classified ads, I'm going to pass.
Plus, it's unnecessary. As Linda noted in the article, Medium now does this for us.